Back to it

My first day back for spring semester at Penn State began far too early.  Yawning, I showered in my new dorm, shuffled through the bombsite which had become my suitcase for some clothes before heading to my first class of the semester – international political economics. 

After an incredible winter break seeing my family and travelling to the UK the reality of being back at school in chilly Pennsylvania has been difficult to accept.  Not only do I have back to school blues, but almost all my friends from last semester are no longer here – having either transferred to other campus’s or returned home from their semester abroad.  The unfortunate reality is that I have lost a huge part of what Penn State meant to me overnight and I have been spending more time alone than I did in the entirety of last semester ( down huh ? )

However, some exciting changes have happened.

I have finally moved onto a dorm on campus with a lovely American roommate Brittney. Now that I am on campus I also get a meal card with prepaid meal dollars. Every time that I go and eat at the dining halls on campus I use these meal dollars to pay and receive a 65% discount on food.  The options at Penn State are much more diverse than at my hall at VUW – we can choose from salads, noodles, sandwiches, burgers, fries, sushi or a more traditional cooked meal and unlimited ice cream.

I haven’t really discussed where I lived last semester because myself and the other exchange students from New Zealand had a lot of difficulties our accommodation. I didn’t want prospective exchange students to read my complaints and be deterred from applying because of my experience. All exchange students at Penn State are guaranteed on campus housing (i.e. dorms) when a contract is signed with the university.  However, for fall 2016 Penn State accepted too many students and thus had far too many students for the number of beds they had available.  As a result some exchange students – including myself and all the students from New Zealand were told to find their own accommodation off-campus a month before we headed to the USA. 

This meant a lot of sleepless nights scrolling through housing pages on Facebook and panicked phone calls to my parents.  Although I ended up living in a nice apartment with a group of very nice girls from the Middle East I still craved the true American college experience that my friends from Australia, England and the USA who were lucky enough to have on-campus housing were experiencing.

As well as a change in accommodation I have started a new batch of classes, all of which are quite different from what I took last semester. 

This semester I’m taking …

PLSC 412 – International Political Economy

Pretty much what it said it is and similar to macro-economics classes I have taken at home. 

PLSC 442 – American Foreign Policy .

The professor for this class despises Trump and classes so far have revolved around discussing how Trump will be breaking the constitution by swearing the Presidential oath at the inauguration. 

ECON 351 – Money and Banking. 

Even though I don’t really enjoy economics this class doesn’t seem too bad.  Part of our grade comes from taking part in an online stock simulator by buying and selling shares. The person who makes the greatest profit at the end of the semester receives a bonus on their final grade !

CAMS 4 – Introduction to Jewish and Christian studies.

This is just a general education class, which involves reading the bible for homework. Other than that it’s very interesting.

COMM 205 – Gender and Race in the Media. 

So far this is my favourite class.  The lectures are entirely discussion based in which people to share their own experiences with the class.  In addition we have to write a blog post each week with our reactions and thoughts about the discussion in class ( so perfect for me !). 

With so many changes going on it almost seems as though I’m re-starting my year abroad again, albeit without getting constantly lost on campus. However, I’ve decided to take this as a new challenge to broaden my horizons and being more outgoing than I ever have before in order to re-find my footing at Penn State again.